Vimco provides a versatile selection of horizontal cartoning machines, designed to meet diverse packaging needs with intermittent, multiple-pitch, and continuous motion options. Engineered for side-loading and sealing pre-glued cartons, these machines deliver precision and speed, reaching up to 300 cartons per minute. Ideal for industries requiring reliable and efficient cartoning solutions, Vimco’s machines offer adaptability for high-demand production lines.
Vimco build three horizontal cartoners and the difference between them is how the carton moves. The ICM100 is intermittent and runs to 60 cartons a minute. The ICMMP100 is intermittent with multiple pitches and runs to 90. The CCM100 is continuous motion and runs to 300. That is a five fold range across one product family, so the honest starting point is your required rate rather than the machine, because each step up buys speed at the cost of complexity.
An intermittent machine stops the carton, loads it, then indexes on. Loading into something stationary is mechanically simpler, gentler on awkward product and easier to set up and diagnose when it goes wrong. Sixty a minute covers a great deal of Irish food, pharma and cosmetics production. If your line rate genuinely sits below that, the simpler machine is the better buy and the money is better spent on the infeed.
The multiple pitch version keeps the intermittent principle but handles more than one carton per index, which is how it reaches 90 a minute without moving to continuous motion. It is the sensible middle option when the rate has outgrown a single pitch machine but the volume does not justify continuous. Worth looking at closely if you are being pushed towards continuous motion on a rate you only hit at peak.
In continuous motion the carton never stops, and the product is loaded into a moving carton. That removes the acceleration and deceleration that limits an intermittent machine, which is where the 300 comes from. It also demands a steady, well collated infeed, because a continuous machine cannot wait for product the way an intermittent one can. At this rate the machine is rarely the constraint. Everything feeding it becomes the project.
All three load from the side and use pre-glued cartons, so the carton arrives flat, is erected by the machine and filled through the open end. That keeps the carton supply simple and the tooling straightforward, but it does mean carton quality matters: blank tolerance and board consistency decide how reliably the magazine feeds, and a cheap carton can cost more in stoppages than it saves per thousand.
Cartons can be closed with hot melt glue or with an interlocking system, and double flap interlocking closure is available. Glue gives a sealed, tamper evident carton with a consumable and a heated system to maintain. Interlocking uses the board itself, which removes the adhesive entirely and makes the carton easier to flatten and recycle. If your customers report on packaging waste, that is a real difference rather than a preference.
Different infeed solutions are available, including a robotic loading unit and direct multi belt infeed. This is the decision that most often determines actual output. A robotic loader handles variable, fragile or mixed product and adapts to new formats through programming. A multi belt infeed is faster and simpler where the product collates predictably. Specify the infeed against your least well behaved SKU, not your best one.
Special cartoning machines are available for carton dimensions and shapes outside the standard range, which is worth raising early rather than compromising the pack. In the line, cartoning usually sits after filling and alongside sleeving machines, forming and closing and lidding machines, and ahead of end of line machines for cases and pallets, all specifiable together as a complete packaging line. LVP Automation specifies, installs and supports cartoning machines from Finglas, Dublin 11 as part of our wider automation services.
Continuous and multiple-pitch motion keep throughput high while maintaining placement accuracy and seal integrity.
Handles a wide range of carton sizes and product presentations with fast, guided changeovers to minimise downtime.
Clean PLC/HMI handshakes to product infeeds, coders/inkjets, vision/inspection and case packing for end-to-end efficiency.
Quick answers on motion types, speeds, formats, changeovers, coding and integration.
Intermittent suits delicate or variable products; multiple-pitch balances speed and control; continuous delivers maximum throughput for stable products.
Up to 300 cartons per minute, subject to carton size, product infeed and print/inspect requirements.
Yes, guided, recipe-based adjustments enable quick changeovers between sizes and formats.
Pre-glued cartons are side-loaded and sealed using compression and verified closure; optional glue verification and flap detection available.
Yes, integrate TIJ/CIJ or TTO for date/lot codes and add vision for print presence, code grading and flap/closure checks.
Manual or automated loading, robotic pick-and-place, bucket conveyors and collators depending on product and orientation.
Designed for accessibility with clear guards, tool-less change parts and preventative maintenance schedules.
Reject stations and sensors remove non-conforming packs; counters and alarms track events for QA.
PLC I/O or fieldbus links to checkweighers, case packers, palletisers and WMS/MES for traceability.
Stainless and clean-design variants are available for sectors with elevated hygiene requirements.
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